Quick and Easy Spanish Rice

Happy Healthy Home's Spanish Rice

2 tbsp. butter

1 onion chopped (about 1 cup give or take)

2 tsp minced garlic

2 cups white or brown rice 

2 1/2 cups water or chicken broth (if no broth add in 2 tsp. "Better than Bouillion" chicken)

1 cup tomato sauce

4 tbsp. (or so) parsley

In large skillet that has a cover, heat 2 tbsp butter and throw in your onions. Cook the onions for about 5 minutes. Then add the minced garlic for about a minute. 

Next add the uncooked rice. Let it get golden brown in the pan, tossing occasionally. 

Slowly add the water or broth to the pan, the tomato sauce and the parsley. Give it a little stir...Liquid should start bubbling turn heat to LOW and cover and simmer for 20 minutes for white rice and about 45 minutes for brown rice.

Easy Chicken Ala King without Canned soup

Chicken Ala King

Homemade Canned soup ingredients:
6 Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken broth 
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
pepper 

In a large skillet melt butter, add flour and cook until slightly browned/blended together. About 3 minutes over med. heat. Add broth and whisk together, then add milk slowly whisking together.

to make the ala king add:
4 cups cooked cut up chicken
3 cups frozen peas
Add up to 2 cups of water til sauce is consistency desired.  

Stir together and cook over low heat 30 minutes or so...Serve over rice or baking powder biscuits

Aussie Chicken Recipe - Honey Mustard Chicken

This chicken dish is soooo good ~ a fan favorite here at Happy Healthy Home.  I have tweaked the original so time to write it up. It's a great Costco supper, meaning mostly everything can be purchased at Costco, and since I'm a Costco kinda girl...it works for me!

Aussie Chicken
Ingredients ~
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 
2 tsp. Lawry's season salt

6 slices bacon, cut up (Costco all natural! I use a scissors to quickly snip into pieces)

1/3 cup honey (buy locally)
1/2 cup yellow mustard 
1/4 cup mayonnaise (might increase to 1/2 cup next time)

1 cup fresh mushrooms (cut up small, cause that's how we like 'em)

1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
parsley for garnish

Here are the steps~
1. Thaw chicken if needed. Rub or sprinkle season salt on chicken, both sides. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

2. Mix up honey mustard sauce- honey, mustard and mayo. Set aside.

3. In a skillet fry up bacon until crisp, place bacon on a plate. 

4. In same skillet, using a bit of bacon drippings, cook chicken 3-4 minutes per side. (brown them off)

5. Assemble your dish- 
Spray 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Place chicken in pan.
Give each chicken piece a spoonful of honey mustard sauce. (save sauce and heat to serve alongside)
Place mushrooms over chicken, then the bacon pieces. 
Sprinkle with the cheddar cheese.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (at some point you should preheat the oven but I'll let you decide when to do that.)

7. Plate chicken over rice, garnished with parsley, drizzled with sauce.

This dish has several steps but if you break them down it can really be a nice fancy dinner at home. You can fry up the bacon ahead of time or make your sauce in the morning. Most of all enjoy!

Amish Friendship Bread with No Starter and No Pudding

If you google Amish Friendship bread there are some pretty humorous posts out there about how people go running when they see you coming with "starter" and I agree. It makes great bread but who wants to babysit a science experiment on your counter continually? It's fun one time but after that, it becomes more than most people want to deal with.

So here is what we did today with yummy results! We don't want to add instant pudding and we don't care about the "do not use metal" rule. And so far so good...we have survived and the bread was delicious!

Amish Friendship Bread with No Pudding and No Starter
In the bowl of a KitchenAid Mixer (metal!) combine-
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar 

Then add-
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs

1/2 cup cocoa (if chocolate is wanted, when is chocolate not wanted?)
3/4 cup plain yogurt (in place of "instant pudding" in original recipe)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together in a small bowl- 
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Grease pan(s) and sprinkle with part of your cinnamon/sugar mixture fill pans with batter and then sprinkle remaining cinnamon/sugar on top before baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes. Time will depend on size of loaf pans. Today we used mini bundt pans and those took 25 minutes and our medium sized loaf pans took 50 minutes. Use a toothpick to determine if done. 

Quinoa and Black Beans Recipe

Quinoa and Black Beans

1 cup Quinoa (keen-wah)

2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. Salt and  1/2 tsp. pepper

In a medium sized sauce pan bring chicken broth, salt and pepper to a boil, add quinoa reduce heat to low and let simmer with cover for 15-20 minutes. 

While the quinoa cooks (or you can cook it up ahead of time) Begin the rest of the dish~

1 onion - I like vidalia's or a sweet onion

3 good tsp. (more or less) of minced garlic

2 tbsp. butter

2-4 cups frozen corn

2 (15 oz) cans black beans rinsed and drained

1 can Ro-Tel*

Add the butter to a stir-fry type pan and saute' the onion and garlic. When your house smells really yummy and your kids are saying "what smells so good??" then add in the corn and cover for about 5 minutes corn. Then add in the cooked quinoa, black beans and the Ro-Tel. Simmer together for 10-15 minutes or so until heated through. Serve!

I made this up tonight and it really tasted great. Some of us enjoyed it with a little sour cream dollop on top and a few tortilla chips.  It was a really easy supper to put together, inexpensive and apparently Quinoa is quite the healthy Gluten-free thing to eat now. :-) I found Organic at Costco. 

This was our first taste of Quinoa and we all thought it was great...looking forward to more dishes using this. 

*Ro-Tel is the name brand can of diced tomatoes and chili's/peppers almost all grocery stores carry. It adds a nice "kick". 

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Recipe

This turned out great! I make this in our Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. It fits in the 1.5 qt bowl, although it's bursting at the seams when it's spinning!


Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
1 pint of strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced. Place in bowl with 2 tsp lemon juice and about 1/4 cup sugar. Mash down and allow to sit and get juicy for 2 hours. (I think "macerate" is the proper cooking term.)


Then strain strawberries into a bowl, separating the pieces from the juices. Set aside.


1 - 8oz cream cheese (softened)
3/4 cup sugar


Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in~
2 cups Half & Half
1 cup Whipping Cream 
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat until well mixed. Add in strawberry juices.


Pour into Ice cream maker. Start spinning! Let it churn for 30 minutes.
After that add in the strawberry pieces, and crushed up graham or animal crackers. I measured out 2 cups of Tigger and Pooh organic animal crackers from Costco, then I crushed them. Let it churn 5 more minutes or so to mix together.


Then, you know what to do.


Ohh la la. What a tasty treat.

Peanut Butter Granola Recipe

Peanut Butter Granola~

In sauce pan melt together-

2/3 cup peanut butter

2/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp. butter

Remove from heat and add in-

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

6 cups rolled oats

4 Tbsp. water

Spread on 2 baking sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Homemade Italian Dressing

This is my super easy and super tasty Italian dressing recipe. It's great on a lettuce salad, used for pasta salads, marinade for meat/poultry and any recipe that calls for Italian dressing. Low salt, healthy ingredients and very inexpensive!


Italian Dressing
1 1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder (could increase this per your taste preference)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning 


Measure the olive oil first then add the rest. Blend with a blender or wisk. Store in refrigerator.